Refiner's Fire

    Refiner's Fire. That is a beautiful song. Sung by someone who is either waiting to enter the crucible or has been through the process and now is pure gold. But while one is going through the process it may be a little less "beautiful". It maybe down right ugly. Warning: This may be a little caustic so if you have children up reading this then this is for mature audiences only. It is rated R - Refiners R - for violence and destruction. There may be some foul language, too.

      When I was in college I took an art course where we made bronzes  statures, not brazen, bronze. We had to melt down our own in a smelter's crucible. I can remember very clearly watching the black dross come to the surface and having to scoop it off. It was a hot, sweaty, ugly job. That part stands out the most and of course the finished product. I made a man kneeling in prayer. It was quite beautiful. The statue in bronze, kneeling in prayer, quite religious, was somehow praiseworthy. People commented on it, how nice it was. I put it on a stained piece of wood. What a nice sculpture it made. I placed a brass plack on the foundation with a scripture on it and gave it to a friend. He was quite pleased.  But all I could think about when I saw that sculpture, was the the little guy I had carefully carved out of wax. The creation was in the wax. I did not take a glob of bronze and carve the praying man. I used wax and carved him carefully. Then I put him in a designed mold and poured the hot metal onto him. He was gone in a awful instance, in a puff of smoke. All melted away. The pure bronze man was left. The process is called the lost wax method. Sort of how God tests our works, with fire (1 Cor. 3:13).
       When we sing that song, (Refiners Fire) "Purify my heart, let it be as gold and silver," I think of that little man and flinch. What are we asking for? Some people go to the fire worshiping, some praying, some resigned, and some, like me, kicking and screaming. In times like these, the Christ I identify with is the one at Gethsemane.
       The band looks so nice and sound so great playing that song. I on the other hand am sweating blood and groaning in sounds too deep for words. Throwing myself around on the ground so it looks more like a wrestling match. I know in the end the "nevertheless" part will happen, but until the dross is scraped off it's going to be ugly.
     - Comments after a sermon from our pastor on 1 Corinthians 3. -